Latest posts for the thread "The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14"

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14

disdainful — GMT

Hello Dakka!

With a new year, a new Tyranid Codex, and a new desire to paint some armies for myself for a while, I decided to dig the box full of foundling and rescue Tyranids out of my hobby closet and put it on the painting desk. And, given my track record of the last few years, where I've only been able to finish armies for other people and never any of my own, I figured a motivator that didn't come from me would be a good idea. So, here follows my very first Project Log, in which I hope to detail the entirety of the painting process. So without further blather:

A note on the army: This army is comprised of models from many different sources, including foundlings fished out of the bitz bin at work, giveaways (mostly leftover frames from the old Macragge starter), and leftovers from an army that was being built for my girlfriend, before she decided she only has time to play Hordes. As such, by the time this project was initiated, most of the models were already built, so there's very little conversion work. I know very well that some good conversion work is a hallmark of a great army, so I do plan to include some, but it's probably going to be mostly mods to the big bugs. I will keep this space updated with WIP details of anything noteworthy.

A note on the fluff/storyline: Another Hallmark of a great army is a little backstory, which poses a bit of a challenge for the Hive Mind. The new book gives someting to work with, especially the stuff about Hive Tyrants being semi-autonomous and possessed of (relatively) unique personalities and capabilities. With that in mind, I'm letting the story for this army coalesce as I get games in, working from a basic concept that this swarm represents a leftover tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken, awash in renewed connection to the Hive Mind in the wake of Hive Fleet Leviathan's assault on the heart of Imperial Space and rebuilding its strength. The swarm is currently led by a pair of Hive Tyrants. One prefers close assualt, the other ranged supremacy, and while they seem to be opposites, their actions are eerily similar; humans might call them twins, but in the context of the spawning pools of the Tyranids it seems more likely that they have some splinter of shared consciousness. The carapace armor of the Tyranids in the swarm has diverged from the standard bone-and-red of the Kraken and now includes a mottling of a blue... whether it is a reaction to (or a mockery of) the blue armor of the Ultramarines or the blue trim of the Eldar of Iyanden, or something simpler, remains to be discovered.

I'll be developing the story as I play games with the army, so far there's been a dust-up with some mechanized Orks that has taught the Hivemind that Raveners shouldn't be carelessly thrown away and that neither of the Hive Tyrants leading this swarm is likey to take the field without a trusty Venomthrope close by.

And on to the painting!

Here's the whole gang, minus the Raveners who were still on the sprue at the time of this photo:

My goal is to get the whole thing done before February 22, when the new semester starts. My super-secret goal is to get it done before the end of January so I can start on something else before school kicks in. Either way, it's a bit daunting, but I'm (currently) confident.

I've started this army with what I call a 'value wash', which is a technique I adopted from oil painting. The basic concept is to block out the rough areas of color on everything before you dig in on the actual painting. The way I went about it in the first batch was to prime everything black, then go over the models again with a light dust of white primer to bring the detail out slightly, then wash the whole model in brown ink, and then ink the shells red. The first batch ended up looking like this:

It ended up a little dark overall, but the basic colors were present and I was able to get roughly 30 Stealers, 40 gaunts, 2 fexes, and the Broodlord done in about two hours, and it was a huge push forward. I've realized that the most important thing for me to keep moving forward is to feel like I'm making progress, and it occurred to me that the whole 'value wash' wasn't necessarily effective in getting the job done faster, since I'm still going to paint the whole model anyway, but its effectiveness is in helping me feel like I'm getting something done, which in turn keeps me on task and focused.

I refined the value wash stage for the next batch, which includes 6 warriors, some more gaunts of both types, a couple more stealers, 11 ripper bases, and 3 of the new raveners.

Step 1: Primer
Step 2: White Drybrush
Step 3: Inks

Incidentally, here's what I was using, materials-wise, for the first stab at this new, more refined workflow:

Step 1 really is Osh. I've tried GW, B2P, Armory, Auto Primers, Wal-mart $0.99 cans, you name it. I know that no primer is created equal, and everyone has their own preference for finish and texture, but the Osh cans give me the best result with the least amount of coaxing. Doesn't hurt that they're cheap, too!

Here's a basic shot of a warrior, clad only in black (I went with deathspitters and a barbed strangler for the first warrior brood; since I never count on my enemy failing a Morale check the devourer morale debuff thing isn't all that interesting, so i went for higher strength to make the shots that do hit more likely to stick):

The next step is the white drybrush:

This step is to bring out the detail and give some contrast prior to the ink washes. My intent was for this to be analogous to the white primer overspray, just with some more definition and control. I used P3 Menoth White Highlight, since it's a slightly off-white, and I feel it drybrushes better than Skull White.

Here's a closer shot of my brushes of doom:

The red-handle brush is an old, old GW tank brush, this one's used for big drybrush overbrush strokes, the two blue-handles are last-gen GW small flat drybrushes in various stages of fray, I use the more frayed one for drybrushes, clipping stray bristles as needed, and the less frayed one for the brown ink wash. The black handle is a current-range GW large brush, used for the red ink, since it's more targeted to the shells and carapace bits. I try to use the biggest brush possible for any given job.

So, on to step 3, the ink wash; the brown part of which was a mix of 70-30 Didi's Magic Ink Brown to Didi's Black, and the red part of which was 80-20 P3 red ink to the brown mix:

This ended up looking terrible, and I devised quickly a plan to remedy it, as savvy forumites may have already divined from reading the comments on my gallery posts. Either way, it ended up looking way too... white, still. I realized that the white primer overspray worked because it maintained so much of the black primer underneath, so the overall finish was dark colors. This, despite achieving the greater definition I was looking for, was too white.

So, next post will be all about how I fixed my mistake and ended up streamlining my workflow, which will be critical if I want to get this done in time. For now I need to actually paint some models before I go to bed!

Here's a shot of one of my finished gaunts, so you can see what I'm shooting for:

And the fighty fex:

And as a final note, I stumbled on possibly the single best way to figure out a color scheme ever: While editing the image of the termagant I stumbled on the "Hue" adjustment (in Photoshop, it's Image > Adjustments > Hue & Saturation), and I realized that you can adjust the Hue slider to generate a bunch of alternate color combinations from just your test model! I saw three schemes that I liked just as much as the one that I'm doing, and if I had found that function earlier, I might have even chosen one of those!

Anyway, thanks for looking!
-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

Brotheralexos — GMT

Nice, you should try making brighter colours though, as they help the alien look.

Also, you should look into some Fluff about your tyranids, My little brother is doing nids, hive fleet behemoth, and we made some interesting fluff about a tendril that was lost to the warp, and made its way to my Orkish empire of Goarkill. I think a Kraken army would be alot easier to explain, considering that they were gone for only a month or so, when Leviathan came.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

Marquis — GMT

Nice intro, Disdainful.

Looking forward to some regular updates. As for codex wiggle room, are these going to be Eastern or Western 'Nids? The Western ones are so much more dogmatic, dontchanow!

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

Brightmore — GMT

Looking good, I like the Shell Highlight.

You might want to consider basing them in a lightly color to contract how dark the bugs are in general.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

ph34r — GMT

Go OSH! Some better lighted pictures would be good, it's hard to tell what any of the colors actually are. It looks kinda like grey/bone?

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

Krellnus — GMT

Looks really good.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

The Good Green — GMT

The carapace color scheme looks amazing.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

disdainful — GMT

Thanks everyone!

I have been developing my picture-fu, and I discovered the magic of clean, white sheets of paper whilst photographing the raveners, so I hope the next batch of shots come out better. This has been a discovery process for me on all accounts, right from the start.

I like the idea of finding a way to brighten some of the colors... My first thought is to expand the blue mottling, then go with bright blue and red where the two colors meet; trying for a Warhol-esque contrast of colors. The answer may also lie in simply going one step higher on the reds. I like the idea of the bigger bugs all having slightly different coloration and patterning on their shells, since that's where a lot of the focus will be, so if I end up with a few tries on the models I may be happy with it regardless.

Basing will have to be carefully considered. I want to make sure it ties the army together, and adds interest without detracting from the bugs themselves... But, I have to get more done before I start worrying about that!

I got the raveners up to 50% or so this morning, so I'll have them and the solution I found to the ink problem up with pics tonight!

And I think the Eastern bugs are just more used to it, so they're less strict. This whole hivemind concept is new to the western bugs, so they're full of communal zeal!

Now, I must pack away all my toy soldiers so I can go to work... with my other toy soldiers!

-Dis.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

disdainful — GMT

Ok, here goes the day 2 update...

So, I was unhappy with the ink over the white drybrush. On the fex that I finished before I started this batch, I did an overbrush of P3 Beast Hide prior to the final skin-tone of P3 'Jack Bone (which is analogous to GW Bleached Bone, just a little darker). So, I figured I should try to stay in the same tonal range with my colors, and I decided to give the models that had been drybrushed white a similar coat of Beast Hide before the inks, to try for a better result. After this step, I had models that looked like this:

I went pretty heavy, intending to cover all the white. I expect the white underneath will brighten the Beast Hide slightly than if it had been done right over a black primer coat. I began to think that the white drybrush stage was unnecessary. After this step, I hit all the models with the brown and red ink mixes, which gave me this result:

Which I liked much much more. The colors were far richer, and I felt like I had a much more stable base to build my subsequent layers on. I went ahead and did the whole batch in this fashion. After about an hour and a half, I had the following:

I think of painting an army in terms of a bell curve... The bottom of the curve is after I've built and primed everything, then the long drag up the curve is basecoats and establishing where the colors will be (assuming of course that I know my color scheme ahead of time!), after which you're at the top of the curve, and finishing details and highlighting is the wild ride to the bottom, leveling out the other side of the curve with basing.

In the past I'd re-do the whole up-down thing with every model and unit I'd paint, and after a few trudges up the near side of the curve I'd get so drained that my enthusiasm waned faster than Conan's stint on the Tonight Show. Ever since I've started doing this 'value wash' preparatory step, I feel like the drudgerous part of the curve is over and I just get to matterhorn down the fun side over and over again. In reality, I'm still probably doing about the same amount of work; any time I save on a unit-by-unit basis is probably countered by the time spent on the prep stage. But, for me, the feeling that I've gotten so much done is enough to keep me moving. It may not work for everyone, but if you're having trouble getting an army[i] finished[/i], it's probably worth a try.

Metababble aside, I did some work on the raveners this morning, and I skipped the white drybrush entirely and went straight from a black undercoat to the Beast Hide overbrush. After that, I went to the ink stage, which I modified as well. I noticed that my supply of Didi's Magic Ink was getting depleted pretty fast... and that is one of the few hobby supplies I can't get from work. So, I decided to try a different brown ink, as in, one I can replace easily, since this step uses a lot. I ended up trying P3 Brown Ink, which I ended up liking far better than the Didi's mix anyway. Not only did I improve the workflow by removing the need to do a mix, but with the P3 Brown Ink I had a greater degree of control; with a little water it was perfect for the skin parts, and a straight application worked great on the shells, yielding a darker finish that gave me a great red, after the red ink (mixed with a tiny bit of the brown) was applied. Here's the result after the new step 3:

I'm totally pleased with the result. Not only was it easier to accomplish, it's apples-to-apples with the Tyranid Warrior above, which had gone through four steps to get to the same place. I'll try to get some shots of just the brown ink, so you can see the detail of that step prior to the reds.

I'm wringing my hands to process the GW shipment tomorrow, since it contains my Trygons, my Venomthrope, and My Hive Guard! I have resolved that I really need a Tervigon, too, which will obviously require some conversion work, so I'll of course show the step-by-step transformation of a carnifex.

I'm off to put another 30 minutes into the raveners before bed, so goodnight dakka and thanks for looking!

And yes, the bugs will be ready to hit the table next Tuesday. It's the first night of the new league, after all...

-Dis.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey Day 3 Update - 01/15

disdainful — GMT

Ok, here's the Day 3 Update...

This morning I finished the Raveners. They got some paint last night, basic details, so this morning I was able to concentrate on the carapace coloration. As of start of work today, they looked like this:

After the ink wash, the steps were:

[b]Big Stuff:[/b]
- Jack Bone overbrush on the skin areas. I was shooting for good coverage while still preserving the details and the darker browns from the ink washes in the recesses.
- Cavalry Brown on the shells. This was applied as well with a mind toward preserving the darker tones in the recesses; mostly where the shell pieces overlap. Finding this color for a red was a total accident; it comes in the Vallejo German Armor paint set for Flames of War. Apparently it's the color the Germans used as a primer for tank treads. It's also an amazing red with really good coverage. Who knew?

[b]Little Details:[/b]
- The little HR Giger openings in the skin are painted in Necrotite Green.
- Teeth are Menoth White Highlight.
- Tongues are Murderous Magenta.
- Claws are black.

Here's the supplies used during this round:

Same old, slightly frayed flat brush for the skin, the new-style GW large brush for most of the rest of the work, and an older GW basecoat brush that has been clipped down a bit for the teeth and greens.

So, this morning it was on to the carapace and finishing. I decided to try something new on the shells; to keep with the whole idea of each bug having slightly different markings. I figured that raveners would have adapted busier markings to add to the surprise and confusion when they pop up. So, I did more of a mottling, almost confetti-speckle pattern. But before that, I did some streaking and edging on the carapace with Macharius Solar Orange. It makes sense that Ravener shells would be a little more worse-for-the-wear than other creatures in the swarm that don't burrow through the ground to get at their prey. After this 'weathering' step, this is what I had:

With the shells good and rough, it was time for the coloration. The basic layer was Exile Blue, which is one step darker than I had started with previously, followed by a mottling of Meredius Blue, then finally a speckle of Arcane Blue. Here's the progression:

And finally, I did some spots of Khador Red Highlight... which is basically orange, to top off the whole concept. raveners pop out of the ground, and in addition to being carved to pieces, all you can see are these distracting, contrasting colors flashing everywhere. It's a subtle effect, I admit, but it's not like they'd have "SURPRISE" painted across their backs. Here's the whole gang, minus the last light wash with some diluted Didi's Magic Ink Black, and bases, obviously.

So, day 3 and the finished roster includes 20 termagants, 1 fighty fex, 1 broodlord, and 3 raveners. I don't expect to get much done tomorrow, but I do hope to finish building the stuff I picked up today. I brought home a Venomthrope, a Trygon (or possibly a Mawloc), and a pair of Tyrant Guard. I'm pretty sure I want to kit out one of the Hive Tyrants as a dedicated CC fighter with an armored shell, so I'm going to try and get that one built and possibly slightly converted over the weekend.

Have a good weekend!
-Dis.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey Day 3 Update - 01/15

disdainful — GMT

Hey Dakka!

Well, I ended up getting something done yesterday after all, so I automatically did way more than I thought I would!

I got the Venomthrope and the Tyrant Guard built. The TG went together with just some super glue on Friday night, so I was able to get them primed and inked yesterday:

They look pretty cool, kinda like angry little beetles. I played around with converting them a little, trying to fit some extra armor plates or spikes since they're initially going to be walking around with the fighty Tyrant, but I couldn't find any good spots on them.

The Venomthrope is such a cool model, I just built it standard. I did bend his arm-tendrils into more interesting curves, but other than that he's stock. He took some green stuff in the arm sockets to ensure a good bond, so he didn't make yesterday's primer round:

Finally, the fighty Tyrant has been built and is ready for spray. I added a ridge of spined armor plates to his back to represent his armored shell. These didn't sit very well on the crest in the center of his back, so I had to greenstuff underneath the new bits to get them to set right, and I just textured the excess to approximate the 'bonding skin' that you see where skin meets carapace on a lot of bugs, like in the tyrant guard's neck socket. This is what I ended up with:

What do you guys think?

I ended up getting some painting done too, I got basic skin and carapace colors on the Warriors, the rest of the built termagants, and the shooty fex.

Finally, I came to an impasse... while sticking leftover metal bits (from cleaning the T Guard and the Venom) into the bottom of the ravener's bases with leftover green stuff to balance them so they don't pitch over forward constantly, I remembered the dreaded "Hormagaunt Problem". Which, of course, is that every Hormagaunt's natural state is to be fallen over forward.

Since the base is a slotta base, I can't glue a nickel (sized) object in there (since I would never break US federal law by defacing currency!) , so I'm not sure how to go about balancing them. There's a lot, and I don't have much metal off-cut left. I'm not very enthusiastic about having to fill the whole underside of the base with green stuff, and i'm not even sure that would work. So what do i do? What solutions have you guys come up with? I've heard of super-gluing small BB pellets in there, but that seems like a lot of work...

Anyway, thanks for looking!
-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

Savnock — GMT

Liking the armored spine- that's a really good idea.

As for base weights- get split-shot fishing weights and a pair of clippers. That should do you fine.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

Dysartes — GMT

disdainful - get a bag of metal washers, and cut to fit the gaps in your bases......

The bugs are looking good, too.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

sgtpjbarker — GMT

I must say I aspire to be the great painter you are. I want to learn to paint the way you do. Your skill at changing to P3 and making new choices to get outstanding results, wow. I have to thank you again for teaching me how to make Imperial Fists. Every time I bring them out they gather a crowd of people that all say the same thing, how did you get that yellow? I also reply, the master taught me.

Are you interested in teaching me how to do the other Hive Fleet (east)?

Sgtpjbarker

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

Marquis — GMT

Nice stuff, man. Really like the blue/orange caprice...

I hate people like you, with your talented painting, and you work ethic, et al.

I shall have to come by and see them, so that I can be disgusted in person.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

Iron_Chaos_Brute — GMT

I'm loving the carapace scheme-it's realy nice to see bugs looking poisonous and deadly

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey Day 3 Update - 01/15

darkkt — GMT

[quote=disdainful]
Finally, I came to an impasse... while sticking leftover metal bits (from cleaning the T Guard and the Venom) into the bottom of the ravener's bases with leftover green stuff to balance them so they don't pitch over forward constantly, I remembered the dreaded "Hormagaunt Problem". Which, of course, is that every Hormagaunt's natural state is to be fallen over forward.

Since the base is a slotta base, I can't glue a nickel (sized) object in there (since I would never break US federal law by defacing currency!) , so I'm not sure how to go about balancing them. There's a lot, and I don't have much metal off-cut left. I'm not very enthusiastic about having to fill the whole underside of the base with green stuff, and i'm not even sure that would work. So what do i do? What solutions have you guys come up with? I've heard of super-gluing small BB pellets in there, but that seems like a lot of work...

Anyway, thanks for looking!
-Dis.[/quote]

Mate - love the look you have going with these bugs - very cool.

To add weight to a non-slotta base, I use small metal washers - like these http://www.choiceful.com/prod_image/69309_m.jpg.
So far as slotta bases go - (if I cant cut off the slotta part) - I hack into my old fishing kit, and destroy some old lead sinkers. Again, quite effective.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

RiTides — GMT

Wow! Fast work and these are looking good

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

kaiservonhugal — GMT

Looking good - I like that you can produce them quickly

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

disdainful — GMT

Thanks guys!

In all modesty, this period of productivity is, in the grand scope of my hobby career... anomalous, to say the least. Just ask my Khadorans, White Scars, High Elves, Cygnarans, Skorne, Space Wolves, Imperial Guardsmen, Retribution, Warmaster Dark Elves, all the terrain they are supposed to fight over, and my one-armed bandit of an Ork Gargant. Here's hoping that this project will be my 'slump-buster' and some of those things that have been cast aside will actually get done in 2010!

When I worked for GW trade sales at the US HQ (during the tail-end of the Jeff Smith era, for any of you who know of it) I remember working on a Tau army that came to be known as the "Hated Tau", because I actually got models finished! Though, during that time all I had to do was go to work, then go back to the Day's Inn and paint minis. Now, since I'm waiting through the break before the spring semester, I'm in a similar situation. Having the time to paint really helps.

Now that I'm done making excuses for being productive, I have to say a big thank you to Dakka and everyone here; as I had hoped, having this project log has been a huge motivator, and a great learning experience. My whole goal with this has been to find ways to speed up my workflow. I have come to the realization that the one most important quality a miniature can possess is the unique, elusive quality of being 'done'. As far as I'm concerned, an army that's finished (with an honest effort put into it), is infinitely better in all aspects than an army with a couple jaw-dropping models and a lot of grey plastic and bare metal, which is what most of my armies up to this point have looked like (with the caveat that 'jaw-dropping' is a matter or personal taste, of course).

I also have to sing the praises of the wet palette just a little... there's lots of ways to get/DIY one... I just got the P3 one but you can easily fab one with some tupperware with a lid, a large sponge, and some parchment paper or vellum. In case you haven't seen one, the basic concept is that moistened paper goes on top of a damp sponge, creating a wet-ish surface for your paints that keeps them workable for far longer than a plastic palette or the old trusty ceramic tile. I haven't been doing much mixing with this project, but its a huge help with that, and just being able to squeeze out some of the vallejo cavalry brown and know that if I don't go through it all I can close the lid and it will stay viable until I sit down to paint again is huge. I don't feel like I'm starting over from square one each time I sit down to paint; when I open the wet palette, all the paints and mixes I was working with the last time are right there, ready to go. Yet again, better workflow, since I don't feel like I have to get back into gear each time.

Apparently, I'm overly obsessed with things that make the process [i]feel [/i]easier, regardless of how much easier it actually is, if at all. Mind over matter I guess. I hope no one ever tries to hypnotize me! Unless they were going to make me subconsciously believe that painting minis was easier!

Prattle aside, here's the actual update:

I finished the Warriors, the rest of the Termagants, and the Tyrant Guard. I got the other fex mostly done, too, but his carapace isn't finished so he didn't make the cut for this round.

Here's the Warriors, with a detail of the head and back carapace:

I was going to try something different for their markings, but discretion won the day and they got the usual treatment. All I did differently was do three lines of markings on the heads, to follow the ridges on the carapace.

The barbed Strangler on the warrior, and the (now) Stranglethorn cannon on the fex have some fleshy sac bits that I gave a little different treatment... I had a discussion at the store recently about how weird, bio-organic stuff that has a fleshy color scheme, like [i]human[/i] fleshy, is more disturbing than alien colors, since it hits closer to home. Take what you will from that, but I tend to agree for the most part, and though I'm not going for 'disturbing' in this project (I actually love the idea that they look poisonous!), I figured a little detail along those lines would look nice, provided it was unobtrusive. Here it is on the warrior, and a larger view of the fex:

It's pretty simple: P3 khardic flesh over the standard jack bone flesh tone, with P3 carnal pink over than, then an medium-intensity ink of green with some red and a little pink, then more carnal pink over the raised areas. I was going for a kind of greenish tone, to tie in with the bright green elements of the guns, and to establish some colors that inform how the venomthrope is painted. I want him to look sickly and greenish, of course, but I don't want him to be the only thing in the army that has any hint of that kind of color.

The Tyrant Guard were a bit of a fiasco... I wanted them to stand out; not in the confetti, "surprise!" way the raveners do, but more of an across the field attention grabber, "shoot me, I can take it!" Like big walking targets that draw the enemy's eye (and their fire!). So, in the grand tradition of dwarf slayers, I went heavy on the orange highlight. Naturally, this made them look like giant angry pumpkins and was quickly re-done with the standard red. In the end, discretion won out again, and I went for a standard color with markings similar to the raveners, though instead of orange confetti spots, they got mottled with lightened mix of arcane blue and white. Subtle, yes... hopefully it makes them stand out when they're next to the Tyrant.

On the topic of the Tyrant, of course the day after I build him it starts raining. I can't complain too much, since it never rains for more than a day around here and I was still walking around in shorts and sandals yesterday. But, there's no way I'm priming anything when it's this cold and wet out. So, the Tyrant is still bare. As soon as StormWatch 2010 passes, I'll have him up and running.

Finally, the Termagants.

I'm not happy with the devourers. I feel like I'm missing an opportunity to establish another layer of detail to the army. I tried giving them a bit of the green wash that went over the fleshy bits on the Warrior and the fex, and my opinion is a resounding 'meh'. What do you guys think? I'm leery of painting them fleshy...

Wish me luck tonight, it's the first night of the new 40k league at the store, and it will continue my initial playtesting of the army. I made myself a dice tray/box thing, so fingers crossed that my dice mojo turns around a bit.

Thanks for looking!
-Dis.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 7 Update - 01/19

sgtpjbarker — GMT

Here is my two cents. The lines where the carpace meet, should that line be in black with an ink? The edges of the fins on the carpace, could you dry brush an orange or firey red to give it a highlight? The color depth is exceptional, but the recesses seem to be left out and the same color, it just begs for a recess line to punctuate the carpace. The color choice is so interesting and eye catching, they are really stunning to look at. Knowing how good you are on the table makes them double scary.

SgtPJ

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 7 Update - 01/19

Aduro — GMT

I liked the way you did the color patterns on the chitin, and did something similar on mine, so I thought I'd poke my head in and say keep up the good work, you're an inspiration to us all (or at least me)!

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 7 Update - 01/19

disdainful — GMT

Thanks guys!

I hope I can live up to the hype when the models hit the table and the dice start rolling (in my opponent's favor, most likely! ) Honestly, I'm not very well-versed with horde armies. All I can say so far is that I really love not having to worry about armor saves!

We're still on Stormwatch!!!(tm)! out here in L.A., and I hate the rain! It's only day 4 and it's killing me! It's too wet to prime any models so I haven't been able to get the Tyrant or the venomthrope ready to go and I'm balking a bit at the 40 Genestealers... In the meantime I've gotten some fighty warriors and some more termagants done up to inks. And, so as not to feel completely full of fail, I finished the ranged fex:

And here's a detail of his carapace:

Again, I experimented with a different take on his markings, and much like the Three Amigos, I strayed from the formula, and I paid the price. Nobody wants to watch a movie about three wealthy Spanish landowners on a weekend in Manhattan! Suffice it to say, I just altered the orientation of the markings and added in the orange detail like on the fighty fex. I decided that it makes sense that his orange is a little more subdued than the other fex; since he's a shooter he'd more likely have a shell that wasn't as bright so as to not draw attention. Yet more subtle variation. At least that's what I'll keep telling myself!

I've got a big 3-day break coming up, so I will be trying to crank out as much as I can! Have a good weekend everyone!
-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

Shaman — GMT

Game Over man! Game over!

Thats alot of bugs..

I'll be watching.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

KOS — GMT

yikes I like your painting!

and indeed Shaman... these are a lot of bugs. I hate fighting Tyranids, it's an endless swarm!!!

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

Tim the Biovore — GMT

I like this, the paint scheme is awesome, and it's bugs.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

sgtpjbarker — GMT

The way you control the wash is amazing. I take it that you use a combo of P3 and GW washes, yes? When you wash, you target areas, how do you avoid lines of color separation?

The blotches on the carapace, is that with a stipple brush?

Sgt.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

disdainful — GMT

Mostly P3, since most of what I've been doing with the washes has been overall applications. I feel like I have the most control with them, since I can use them straight or slightly diluted for an 'ink' effect, or water them down a good bit and get more of a 'wash'. I'm planning on trying some of the GW washes though, I think you're right about getting some more definition on the carapace.

I put some paint on the rippers and a couple more warriors this morning and I was making an effort to maintain the definition. I don't want to add a step, since that is counter-productive to the worklflow, but if I can refine an existing step to net a better result I'm all for it.

I've been using the Didi's Magic Ink Black, slightly watered down, for the overall wash... I might give the Badab Black a try. I've heard it works very well, and if it doesn't need any diluting before application then that too helps streamline the process.

I haven't tried the stippling brush yet. I've just been using a GW large brush...

I'm running out of days! I gotta get these bugs in the can!

Let's hope this weekend is the paint-fest I hope it will be.
-Dis.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

disdainful — GMT

The sun has finally come out and I actually got a little bit of work done over the weekend, which is more than I was expecting! I always have high hopes for the weekend but I know that not much is going to get finished, simply because girlfriend and social time trumps painting time. That being said, I did manage to get a game in on Sunday morning, despite a long Saturday night and only about 5 hours' sleep! I did a battle report, which you can read here:

[url]http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/275719.page[/url]

So, on to the update!

The only models I finished completely were the Ripper bases, which I did in a fit of work in between inking other, more important models. I got the feeling that if I put them off, they would really never get done, since they have little table effectiveness right now. Rippers are those kind of models that are really easy to paint, but they're kinda useless, so you put them off... Then, at the end of the project, you've got some Rippers that really need to be finished, but you're totally done painting that army in more ways than one, so regardless of how easy they are, they get ignored. I did them up with a very quick scheme just like the rest of the army. Their carapace blue is only one stage, the lighter Arcane Blue. This was partly out of laziness, but it can be explained in theme with the fact that they are the quickest bioform to spawn, and also the one with the shortest life expectancy: Eat stuff, then jump in a digestion pool and get reabsorbed. So, I figured their carapaces would have the least amount of detail, and wouldn't ever have a chance to darken in color with age. Here they are:

Other than that, I was finally able to get primer on some of the last few models in need of it, so the four-clawed Tyrant, the Zoanthropes, and the Venomthrope all got sprayed black. It was still pretty cold and it took the primer a little long to dry, but they came out just fine. Here's the Tyrant:

And here's the Zoes, complete with my Doom of Malantai conversion. Someone else in the P&M blogs had the genius idea of putting a Trygon head-shell over top of the Zoanthrope's giant head to make a DoM, and I 'borrowed' that concept in its entirety! Mine simply uses a Mawloc head (with the little horn/spine thingys), cut slightly underneath to rest on the curves of the Zoe's head, and then sealed with a seam of green stuff which was sculpted to look like connective tissue:

Here's a closer look at the early stage of painting on the brains:

Finally, the Venomthrope:

He got the usual Beast Hide drybrush followed by a brown ink, then instead of inking his shell red, I made a mix of mostly green ink with a little brown and red for cohesion, and used that to ink all the fleshy poison sacs and gas bladders, then painted the shell straight with Cavalry Brown. Thankfully, the shell looks just fine and I have the new green tone well established.

Here's a closer look at the poison sacs. I did two layers of Khardic Flesh followed by Carnal Pink, then washed lightly with some of the green mix diluted with water.

I'm actually having a blast painting the Venomthrope. It's nice to have something to do that isn't the standard grind. I will be putting up a PM update tonight, since today is my real day off (gf has work, then a drum lesson), I'm planting my tuckus in the painting seat and bending bristles until the sun sets. Let's see what I get done. I'm in the final stretch of January and I'm sticking to the whole "finish all I possibly can" edict.

Thanks for reading!
-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 13 Update - 01/25

ghosty — GMT

nice ^^ you paint incredibly quickly! i applaud your skill!

that patterning on your carapace looks really neat.

how did you accomplish it?

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 13 Update - 01/25

disdainful — GMT

Thanks!

The patterning on the carapace has been applied with a GW large brush, loaded pretty heavy with paint, then applied with the only description I can think of being "splotched on". It's very not neat or organized, I just get a good amount of paint on the brush, eyeball where I want the markings to be, and go!

I tried using a stippling brush, like Sgt.PJB suggested, but the result was too uniformly round-spot-ish. Though that might make it's way on to a model for variety's sake, overall I'm looking for a pattern that's more chaotic. Partly because patterns in nature are random so it makes sense, and partly (primarily) because such a pattern is easier to paint than something that needs to be uniform.

It's funny; I remember posting in the old GW forums in response to someone asking about painting lizardmen scales in bright colors, like red or yellow over a darker base. My advice was to load the paint on the brush and carefully "blob" (again, for lack of a better term) the paint on to individual scales, since a thin coat of a warm, low-opacity color would allow too much of the underlying color through and not achieve the desired result; whereas a thicker drop of paint would maintain the intended color. ...I got flamed to death for that! ! But, that's been the basic technique I've been using for the shells on these models. Thick gobs of blue, blobbed onto the red. Granted, blue covers red far better than the reverse, but the technique is the same. I guess the foot's on the other hand now, isn't it Kramer!?

-Dis.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 13 Update - 01/25

disdainful — GMT

So this update was supposed to go up last night, but I started playing this stupid flash game called Mechanism 2, which ate up all my evening! Before I knew it, it was time for re-runs of Medium and then bed.

Anyway, I did get a bunch of stuff done yesterday, and here it is!

First of all, I finished the Zoanthropes. I kept them nice and simple, the only difference was the brain-bits, which were done in the same fleshy style as the sacs/bladders on the venomthrope and the similar bits on the bigger guns. And my Doom of Malantai model got a little speckle of white dots to make him stand out:

Each one got a little different pattern on the head carapace, here's a closer look at the DoM:

I also, totally at random, got an idea to paint a unit of Ymgarl Genestealers. Now, all the stealers are still in the 'grot box' full of models that have been inked but are otherwise unpainted, and I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that they might end up unfinished at the end of the month, but after my last game, I've been thinking I want to try utilizing the Tyranid alternate deployment meta more fully, so I pulled all of my Genestealers with the old Feeder Tentacle heads out of the pile and painted them up to be the Ymgarls, no conversion necessary!

They got the usual treatment, fleshy bits on the tentacles, etc.

Finally, and the reason I didn't get more done: the Venomthrope. I had a blast painting this model, and I really went to town on it.

I'm really happy with this model. The skin is a progressive mix of Beast Hide, Jack Bone, green ink to make it darker and tie in with the other greens on the model, and a touch of red ink to warm the tone slightly. I used Necrotite Green on the edges of the shell and all the vent/orifice areas on the model's carapace vents and head, streaked to look like drips of liquid poison in some places and areas where poison gas/spores had corroded the carapace. Final highlights on the skin were with Jack Bone watered down a tiny bit, and I finished the shell with the army's blue markings, except that I started the pattern with a mix of Meredius Blue and Ordic Olive to create a greenish-blue, to tie in the base of the pattern with the other greens.

I'm getting down to the wire, and I have 20 more termagants, both Tyrants, 24 Hormagaunts, and a bunch of Genestealers. I expect to get about half that done before the finish line, then wrap up the rest in the first week of February before I start whatever the next project is.

Now, though, it's time to go back to bed!

Thanks for reading!
-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 14 Update - 01/26

Aduro — GMT

Shame on you! You continue to way outpace me in painting which is just unacceptable! I couldn't even maintain a dozen Gaunt a day quota... Be less awesome!

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 14 Update - 01/26

disdainful — GMT

Hey Dakka!

Well, it has been the end of the month around here, and I've been trying to get the brush moving when I can.

I had a bit of a snafu with one of my big work brushes, which has frayed beyond the point of usefulness and totally stalled out my gribbly assembly-line. It's my own fault; despite the fact that I work at a game store, I've gone three days without getting a replacement. Tomorrow, I say!

Regardless, I've gotten the fighty Tyrant finished, as well as a Lictor, and I've gotten basic colors over the inks on the other batch of warriors. I'm down to 20 termagants, 20 Hormagaunts, and the Genestealers. Getting close! I'm confident I'll be done within the next week or so.

Anyway, here's the Tyrant. I remember reading something in one of the new WDs about how bigger and older stuff tended to have darker coloration, which makes sense to me, so I gave the Tyrant a layer of brown ink over the skin, then a light highlight, same for the shell with a red/brown ink mix:

I figured that the way I had been building the Tyrant for my list, it was clocking in at just 25 points under the cost of the Swarmlord, so, since He's packing four big blades, I'll probably just run him as the Swarmlord when I want to use it. In looking at the pics while getting them ready to upload, I noticed some spots I totally missed! So, the Tyrant will be getting some touch-ups before the night is over. I was also thinking about adding some dark spots on his skin near his carapace. Another level of detail to suggest age, perhaps.

That's it for tonight. I have to run a M:TG pre-release tomorrow, then it's club night again, but once I return to life on Sunday, hopefully I'll get some serious time at the paint desk.

Here's to the home stretch! Thanks again everyone for being a motivator!

-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

Krusha123 — GMT

Awesome stuff, my only critism is the Venomthrope's back. It kinda looks too splodgy. Everything else is great!

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

Shaman — GMT

Youre a MACHINE

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

Limbo — GMT

I love these guys! Brain on the Zoanthropes look so awesome!

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

azekio — GMT

shiney bio nasty gwibblieness. love it!

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

kaiservonhugal — GMT

awesome - very inspiring, thanks for taking the time to share

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

disdainful — GMT

Hello Again!

It's day 20 for the Tyranids, and I'm actually pretty close to the finish line! I managed to get some work done over the weekend; Saturday was such a grueling event that I got home and got sidelined due to exhaustion; no club night for me! So, in-between watching Point Break and eating pizza, I painted a bunch of bugs! Got a little bit done both Sunday and today, as well. Completed in this round were 11 standard Genestealers and 6 Warriors with talons and claws. The Stealers got a very simple all-bone color scheme with just a red crest on the head and the usual greeny bits and black claws. There's a precedent for stealers being one overall color scheme instead of having separate skin and shell areas, so it's not a complete cop-out . plus, I wanted to be able to distinguish them from the Ymgarls I did previously. Warriors got the usual treatment. Here they are:

The last touch for both of these is to edge the claws in red, but that's a minor concern at this point, the heavy-lifting is done.

So, after 20 days, the completed roll call is as follows:

- 1 Hive Tyrant/Swarmlord
- 2 Tyrant Guard
- 12 Tyranid Warriors
- 3 Zoanthropes incl. 1 Doom of Malan'tai
- 1 Venomthrope
- 1 Lictor/Deathleaper
- 6 Ymgarl Genestealers
- 24 Termagants
- 11 Ripper Bases
- 11 Standard Genestealers
- 3 Raveners
- 2 Carnifexes

And what remains is:

- 1 Hive Tyrant
- 26 Termagants
- 24 Hormagaunts
- 28 Genestealers
- 10 Spore Mines
- 1 Trygon

So, I didn't meet my super-secret goal of finishing the whole thing by January, oh well. My stated goal of February 22 is still completely within reach and I think with some dedicated work (and my spanking new replacement brush) over the next couple days I might be able to knock out most of what's left in the next week. Either way, it's been a great project so far and I have you all to thank, so thanks Dakka!

I'll be back tomorrow night with hopefully [i][b]two[/b][/i] ultra-special birthday battle reports vs. Shrike marines and either Templars or Salamanders. Fingers crossed!

-Dis.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 20 Update - 02/01

disdainful — GMT

Hey everyone!

Here's to heartbreaking last-minute losses on your birthday! I took a mean list last night against a Shrike-led SM army, had him on the ropes all game, then managed to hand over the win at the closing bell through a combination of grevious play errors on my part (which he exploited perfectly, to his credit), and my usual, just-in-the-nick-of-time dice failures. I'm not totally destroyed, though, since I know exactly what I did wrong, and having rectified those errors would have given my game the Mike Tyson Approach that it should have had. Next time, Rutan!!!

Mini Battle Reports notwithstanding, I did fall in love all over again with Trygons in last night's game, so I got off my duff and finished building the the two that I have:

First, the easy one, a Trygon prime from the new general-release GW kit. Yet again, thank you autoCAD, for allowing GW to make awesome models that have clear instructions and go together without issue. I built him very standard, I even added the extra containment spines he's supposed to have for his upgraded bio-electric pulse. I've actually come to appreciate his rattlesnake tail, though I still think it's a little meh in comparison to the Mawloc pincers or the standard Trygon's poison stinger.

GW%20Trygon.html'>GW%20Trygon.jpg' >

And then the difficult one. I got a Forgeworld Trygon from a friend of mine (the Space Wolf player from my most recent BatRep, as a matter of fact) that he had sitting around gathering dust. Getting this was, of course, totally awesome. Not having a base for it was not. I was originally going to cut a piece of five-ply hobby wood to shape, but then I remembered that I had magical, magical plasticard. I used the base that I had as a template and cut two layers of 1/8" plasticard to shape, glued them together, then took a big flat file to the edge to smooth the join and bevel. For as much as I was stressing about having to make a base, this was actually very easy and quick. The lesson? Plasticard is truly magical, and while it probably won't see constant use, having a stash of it is always a good idea!

FW%20Trygon.html'>FW%20Trygon.jpg' >

They ended up being about the same size; the GW kit is slightly larger, so I hunched him over at the waist a bit. Obviously, the resin kit has a lot more detail, I'm going to have to take care painting it so I don't obscure anything. The big question: FW or GW? resin's got the detail, but it also has the fragility and cost to go with it. Plastic's far easier to work with, and it's readily available now for a good price, but you lose a lot of little detail in the translation. I'm kinda a resin fan, so my vote's on the FW beastie, and I'm glad I got one, but I'm totally happy with the GW kit too.

Should have some paint on them this weekend if all goes well, then gribblies, and a marathon of basing, then it's all in the can! Which will clear the way for my next project, which is now a lock to be IG, since I got a new entry into the 'best birthday present ever' category, a mostly complete IG Army! It's been ..."gently" used, so there's going to be some work to bring it back to life, but, a gift horse in the mouth and all that. I'm definitely not complaining!

Anyway, more soon. We'll see if I can sneak a Cygnar army in before I start the Guardsmen...
-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 22 Update - 02/03

Rose_Mountainz — GMT

this blog is very nice been reading through it, and I must say that I like the way you paint the caraphaces on your nids, gives them the character

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 22 Update - 02/03

SideEffect46 — GMT

props to you. Your paint scheme is very nice and has inspired me to create a Nid army myself, now only if Games Workshop hadn't gone out of buisness where I live........

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 22 Update - 02/03

disdainful — GMT

Here it is, the home stretch!

So, after how well the Trygons treated me in my last game, they were due for final touches of paint. I had worked them up to inks during the week, and polished them off last night and this afternoon. They got the usual treatment, with the slight modification that I started the carapace markings with the lightest blue, Arcane Blue, first, to emphasize the contrast, then highlighted them with a mix of Arcane Blue and White, then edged the markings with Solar Orange like the fexes.

FW%20Trygon3.html'>FW%20Trygon3.jpg' >

FW%20Trygon1.html'>FW%20Trygon1.jpg' >

FW%20Trygon%20Head.html'>FW%20Trygon%20Head.jpg' >

FW%20Trygon2.html'>FW%20Trygon2.jpg' >

At this point, I'm basically done, I'm going to wrap up some hormagaunts tonight, then start the bases tomorrow, and this army will be in the can! There's still some genestealers and termagants that are only in inks, but the realist in me has come out and I've decided that since those models would be redundant I'll leave them in the grot box until later this year when I host my big, fully painted, multi-table Apocalypse game of doom at the store.

Hopefully I'll have a family photo ready to go before the end of the week!

Thanks for reading!
-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 27 Update - 02/08

todski — GMT

Your blog is full of amazing absolute awsomeness. I hope one day to master that arcania of the speed paint which you so clearly have. I am not worthy!

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 27 Update - 02/08

Limbo — GMT

The green parts on the first Trygon are so sweet! Can't wait for the family foto

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 27 Update - 02/08

disdainful — GMT

Thanks everyone!

The green on the FW Trygon's gland bits was done with a straight coat of Necrotite green over the base skin color, then inked with a green ink watered down slightly, then I used my finger to wipe off the raised areas to try and get some more definition.

That FW Trygon really is the hotness. The more I look at the two of them, the more the GW Trygon pales in comparison. He's definitely got the $$$ on his side though!

Anyway, here's the second-to-last update before the family portrait, which will wrap this whole thing up with a nice chitinous bow. I finished the hormagaunts last night and this morning:

Nice and simple, just the same treatment as the rest of the gribblies. I was sweating these guys in particular, but when I finally sat down to start working them, I realized that they're a lot easier than termagants; since there's no gun, there's less shell and greeny bits to eat up time on each model.

Next I'll be doing a stage-by-stage entry on the basing. I've talked to so many people and said it so many times, but it always bears repeating that a cohesive, finished basing scheme adds more to an army than can be measured. It's making my soul cry that these models don't have bases yet, but I know that doing it all at once at the end is the best move.

I'm off to the cold, cold battlefield, squaring off against a tournament-winning salamanders list. And it's not even the 10(!) TH/SS terminators I'm worried about: it's the flamers and meltas! Wish me luck!

-Dis.

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 28 Update - 02/09

Limbo — GMT

Destroy him! Death to the servents of the corpse god!

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 28 Update - 02/09

disdainful — GMT

It's done!

The Great Tyranid army project of 2010 is in the books. All the bases are done, the big models are in the display case at work, and everything else is sealed away in a big red GW army case to await a lifetime of miniature battles.

Before I get ahead of myself though, here's the step-by-step for how I based them:

1. I paint the whole top of the base in a thick layer of Scorched Brown, then I dip the paint-covered base in my sand and shake of the excess. Once I do a few models, I'll go back and brush off any sand that got on the rim of the base.

...Yes, Scorched Brown. I know; you're supposed to use watered-down PVA glue, but this is how I do it. Always have, always will. Just a habit I picked up and never shook. It does have some benefits, one being that the paint dries faster than PVA, so I'm able to work more quickly. Another is less easy to explain, but I will try to down in step 3.

As a note, throughout the army I used the GW sand that was available through the early 2000's, which was a blend of small grains and larger grains and gives a really awesome effect. It's not available anymore that I know of, and my supply is running low, much to my dismay. I took a look at the current GW sand, and it looks like sand-box sand. I'll give it a shot, but I get the feeling I'd be better off buying the 25lb. bag from Home Depot and never worrying about basing material ever again.

2. I ink the sand on the base in step 2; I used to use GW Brown ink in the days before the washes, but I have found a more-than-ideal replacement in the P3 Brown Ink. Here's where using paint instead of glue is a huge benefit. You can use the dropper bottle the P3 ink comes in to just drop ink onto the sand, and it will soak in and coat the whole area of the base with just a few drops. You can use a brush to, for a similar effect. Just load the brush with ink, then touch it to the sand. It'll soak into the sand and color the whole base. Don't ask me why, but if you use PVA glue, the ink won't soak through properly, which means you have to paint over the whole thing with a brush. My best guess would have to do with capillary action, and either the paint facilitating it or the glue impeding it. Either way, you can crank through a lot of models in a short amount of time. It takes a while for the ink to dry, and if I have the time I'll leave the models out for the ink to dry overnight; if I'm in a hurry or under the gun to get them finished I'll set them in front of a fan for an hour or so.

3. Step 3 is a simple drybrush. I used P3 Jack Bone for consistency on these, you could easily use Bleached Bone or any other medium- to light-brown in this step, depending on the finish you want.

4. Step four is static grass. I used standard GW grass; If my brain had been on when I stopped by the store today, I would have bought some of the bright green Glade Grass for these, since it's a stronger green I think it would have set off a better contrast between the reds on the model, but instead of getting that and the super glue I needed I left with plastic glue and a Big Mek. Go figure. I use the static grass step as a dual-purpose step, both to add a second level of detail to the base and to cover up areas I'm not happy with, like spots where the sand didn't cover or areas where the drybrush went on too heavy. I usually use drops of super glue to attach the grass, but since I was out, I just used globs of Scorched Brown paint! You can alter the tone of your grass patches with the color of paint you use to adhere it, too. Looking back, I probably should have used a green. Too bad the whole army's already done.

5. Finally, paint the rim of the base Scorched Brown, and it's done. Nice and simple. I've tried using other browns for the base rim before, but I think Scorched Brown is the most neutral and unobtrusive.

This is the sand-ink-drybrush-static grass technique I learned in the trenches of GW, when we were trying to crank out armies for the retail stores to display. I've done lots of different basing schemes, and they all looked very cool, but there's a Haagen-Dazs effect here; complicated, intricate bases look amazing, but the standard (in this sense) method looks just as good, en masse, and it's done a lot faster.

I'll have the Family Portrait up tomorrow, hopefully, and then this thread can comfortably fall to the sweet sleep of a buried forum page, where it will live, like the Road Warrior, "only in my memories"! And my sig, just in case I get nostalgic, or need inspiration!

Anyway, thanks again everyone who dropped in on this thread over the last month! I know it inspired at least one Space Wolf army to get finished, since I saw it at the tournament yesterday!

See you all soon in my next P&M Blog, which will either be all about Grotz and Gargants, or Imperial Guard Armor!

-Dis.

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14

jaweyermuller — GMT

Bases are looking good! In all fairness though my Space Wolves weren't quite finished... They were missing the highlighting, and company icon But yes your project was definitely my inspiration to finish the 1850 point army. Now all that's left is to get my fully painted tournament winning Salamanders out against your fully painted league proven (and very scary) Tyranids. I think some pictures may be necessary during this game, which it looks like will take place since there isn't any rain forecasted for this week!!

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14

HAZZER — GMT

Nice nids! I saw your demstration on hw to paint them but, what courors do you use after the brown and rd inks?

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14

Vitruvian XVII — GMT

Good god HAZZER, this thread is over a year old!

Please read the date of the last post next time...

Latest posts for the thread "The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 33 Update - 02/14*"

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 33 Update - 02/14*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

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The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

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The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey *Day 3 Update - 01/15*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey *Day 3 Update - 01/15*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 5 Update - 01/17*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 5 Update - 01/17*

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 5 Update - 01/17*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 5 Update - 01/17*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey *Day 3 Update - 01/15*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 5 Update - 01/17*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 5 Update - 01/17*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 5 Update - 01/17*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 7 Update - 01/19*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 7 Update - 01/19*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 7 Update - 01/19*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 9 Update - 01/21*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 9 Update - 01/21*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 9 Update - 01/21*

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 9 Update - 01/21*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 9 Update - 01/21*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 13 Update - 01/25*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 13 Update - 01/25*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 13 Update - 01/25*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 14 Update - 01/26*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 14 Update - 01/26*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 17 Update - 01/29*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 17 Update - 01/29*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 17 Update - 01/29*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 17 Update - 01/29*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 17 Update - 01/29*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 17 Update - 01/29*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 20 Update - 02/01*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 22 Update - 02/03*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 22 Update - 02/03*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 22 Update - 02/03*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 27 Update - 02/08*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 27 Update - 02/08*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 27 Update - 02/08*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 28 Update - 02/09*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 28 Update - 02/09*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 33 Update - 02/14*

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 33 Update - 02/14*

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) *Day 33 Update - 02/14*

Latest posts for the thread "The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14"

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey Day 3 Update - 01/15

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

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The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 5 Update - 01/17

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 7 Update - 01/19

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 7 Update - 01/19

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 7 Update - 01/19

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 9 Update - 01/21

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 13 Update - 01/25

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 13 Update - 01/25

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 14 Update - 01/26

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 14 Update - 01/26

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 17 Update - 01/29

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Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 20 Update - 02/01

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 22 Update - 02/03

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 22 Update - 02/03

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 22 Update - 02/03

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 27 Update - 02/08

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 27 Update - 02/08

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 27 Update - 02/08

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 28 Update - 02/09

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 28 Update - 02/09

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14

Re:The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14

The Return of Hive Fleet Kraken, a Tyranid Odyssey (Pic Heavy) Day 33 Update - 02/14